Vocabulary Word

Sentences Containing 'declivity'

Franz and the count in their turn then advanced along the same path, which, at the distance of a hundred paces, led them over a declivity to the bottom of a small valley.

Two other men descended after Danglars forming the rearguard, and pushing Danglars whenever he happened to stop, they came by a gentle declivity to the intersection of two corridors.

The declivity was so small, that I walked near a mile before I got to the shore, which I conjectured was about eight o’clock in the evening.

The declivity of the upper surface, from the circumference to the centre, is the natural cause why all the dews and rains, which fall upon the island, are conveyed in small rivulets toward the middle, where they are emptied into four large basins, each of about half a mile in circuit, and two hundred yards distant from the centre.

By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and despair: that as for himself, being not of an enterprising spirit, he was content to go on in the old forms, to live in the houses his ancestors had built, and act as they did, in every part of life, without innovation: that some few other persons of quality and gentry had done the same, but were looked on with an eye of contempt and ill-will, as enemies to art, ignorant, and ill common-wealth’s men, preferring their own ease and sloth before the general improvement of their country.” His lordship added, “That he would not, by any further particulars, prevent the pleasure I should certainly take in viewing the grand academy, whither he was resolved I should go.” He only desired me to observe a ruined building, upon the side of a mountain about three miles distant, of which he gave me this account: “That he had a very convenient mill within half a mile of his house, turned by a current from a large river, and sufficient for his own family, as well as a great number of his tenants; that about seven years ago, a club of those projectors came to him with proposals to destroy this mill, and build another on the side of that mountain, on the long ridge whereof a long canal must be cut, for a repository of water, to be conveyed up by pipes and engines to supply the mill, because the wind and air upon a height agitated the water, and thereby made it fitter for motion, and because the water, descending down a declivity, would turn the mill with half the current of a river whose course is more upon a level.” He said, “that being then not very well with the court, and pressed by many of his friends, he complied with the proposal; and after employing a hundred men for two years, the work miscarried, the projectors went off, laying the blame entirely upon him, railing at him ever since, and putting others upon the same experiment, with equal assurance of success, as well as equal disappointment.” In a few days we came back to town; and his excellency, considering the bad character he had in the academy, would not go with me himself, but recommended me to a friend of his, to bear me company thither.

More Vocab Words

unfledged - immature; not having the feathers necessary to fly; CF. fledglingcondescend - (derog.) bestow courtesies with a superior air; descend to the level of one considered inferiorforensic - suitable to debate or courts of law; of or used in legal proceedings and the tracking of criminals; Ex. forensic science/medicinemadrigal - pastoral song; song for several singers without instrumentsobsessive - related to thinking about something constantly; of an obsession; preoccupying; N. obsession: compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea; compulsive idea; V. obsess: preoccupy the mind of excessivelyknotty - intricate; difficult; tangled; CF. knotimplicit - understood but not stated; implied; unquestioning and complete; Ex. implicit trusteccentricity - oddity; idiosyncrasyfoment - stir up; incite; instigate; promote the growth of (something evil or unpleasant)penitent - repentant; N.